The Quintessential White Mage: Guide by Alamaxia
__NOEDITSECTION__ News 20 April 2008 -- Guide started, not complete. 27 April 2008 -- Added "Skilling Up Your Magic" guide, as well as some minor grammar errors. 23 May 2008 -- Updated the /SCH section. 15 June 2008 -- Getting ready for Maat, accepting donations of gil! 16 June 2008 -- Alamaxia: 1 --- Maat: 0 08 July 2008 -- Alamaxia WHM75/SMN37 23 August 2008 -- Been a while since last update. Healing magic section has been updated. 27 August 2008 -- Various sections updated in the Subjob Section and the Skilling Up Your Magic section. 22 March 2009 -- I have been away from FFXI for the past several months. I intend to do a major update on this guide in the near future. 28 June 2010 -- I'm BAAAAAACK! Gonna be starting up again tonight and continuing with this page. Gotta get back in the groove for when FFXIV comes out! 5 August 2010 -- Major update - Endgame content added, job abilities updated, and new spells added to the list! 10 August 2010 -- Coming Soon: Detailed leveling guide for common party prey! 2 September 2010 -- Hit level 80 a few days ago! Guide update hopefully to come soon! 28 April 2013 -- WHM99! Wow, this game had changed so incredibly much since I last played 2.5 years ago. I'm looking forward to revamping much of the outdated information in this guide... ESPECIALLY the levelling section! About the White Mage Class : The White Mage class is not something to be trifled with. As a White Mage, you are the party's lifeline, however don't be a jerk. Each action you take effects the outcome of the battle, especially in the early levels. A single misplaced cure could be the difference between life and death as it might draw aggro, might cure the wrong person and the tank dies, or you waste MP and run out by the time the battle is over. Learning how to conserve MP, when to cast the big spells, and when to recast spells are all a part of becoming a White Mage. : Another big thing about being a good White Mage, as could be said just to be a good overall player, is be courteous. So much can be said for a simple "Thank You" or taking communication a step further. If you are going to do something unorthodox such as melee the mob, be sure to let the party know you are deviating from what White Mages normally do so they don't think you are just screwing around. I have been in many parties that have done so well, I just ask "Would you mind if I level my Club skill on these since we are destroying them?" People will be more open to you doing things like this if you ask versus just saying "I felt like leveling Club." Building good character relations will get you more, and faster, party invites because others will understand you are a mature player that knows what they are doing. Races Starting Stats Race Selection Hume ;Pros : Good balance of HP and MP allow you to take a hit if you draw aggro and still toss out the cures. ;Cons : MP pool starts to be dwarfed by the Tarutaru very quickly. Elvaan ;Pros : High MND helps the effectiveness of cures and certain other magics. : High STR is an asset in the early soloing levels. ;Cons : Poor MP keeps you from being able to heal for an extended period of time without rest. Tarutaru ;Pros : With by far the highest MP, the little balls of hate are able to cure much longer with no need to rest. ;Cons : Little HP and VIT makes these the squishiest of the squishy. : First 10 levels are possibly the hardest you will face out of any job. Galka ;Pros : The first 10 levels are easy, as you can deal the hits and take them as well. : A Galka in WHM AF looks awesome. ;Cons : Smallest MP pool of any race. Mithra ;Pros : Decent HP and MP, so you are able to take a hit or two before diving back into cures. ;Cons : Same with Hume, MP pool can't match the Tarutaru. Leveling Guide For camp sites and suggested leveling areas, please refer to Campsitarus. 1-10 : Pick up an Ash Club and some armor for the first few levels. Also, get a hold of some Meat Jerky. The added STR and ATK will allow you to actually do damage to the mobs, maybe even let you take on an Even Match if you are feeling frisky! Once you reach level 4, do yourself a favor and get a Bronze Mace. Hammers tend to make soloing a little less painful. Go to your favorite starting area, and pick on the small ones. You can take Even Match up until about level 3, then you must resort to killing mainly Decent Challenge or Easy Prey as your melee abilities are about that of a clam. Be sure to use Dia at the beginning of every fight so that your hits do a bit more damage. Once you get Banish, open battles with that since it has a longer cast time, then follow up with Dia. :If you can find someone to party with for these first 10 levels, do it. You will get slightly less XP per kill, but without having to rest every two battles, it ends up being more in the long run. 10-20 : Here is where being a White Mage is the hardest. Your MP pool is not yet developed, your cures can't keep up with the damage mobs put out very well, and you draw more aggro at times than the tank can keep. If you want, you can continue to solo WHM to 14 or 15 (I did it, and I can honestly say it was horrid, but hey, kept me out of the Dunes!). At level 11 you get Cure II, but do not use this spell unless in a DIRE emergency. Its MP cost will drain your pool extremely fast, and at this level the enmity gained from this could easily draw aggro off a tank that has just used Provoke. A good motto to follow is "Heal early, heal often." Don't wait until the party members are in the orange to toss a big cure on them. This will not only make the party uneasy, but the aggro could bounce to you, kill you, and thus kill the party. : Be sure to keep all Enhancing Magic spells on your party. Protectra boosts the party's defense by 10, lasts 30 minutes, and is very cheap to cast. There is no excuse for not keeping this up on a party at any level. The bar-spells you gain such as Barwatera and Baraera are very useful in Valkurm Dunes. The Crabs and Pugils in the dunes are both water based and use many water attacks, so be sure to have Barwatera up to minimize the damage the party takes when abilities such as bubble shower are used. Even the Damselflys in Valkurm Dunes use an AOE Poison ability that can be resisted with more water defense. : If given the opportunity to cast Enfeebling Magic in between cures, be sure to cast Dia and Paralyze. The Dia will help the party kill things faster, and the Paralyze will greatly reduce the amount you have to cure as long as it sticks. 20-40 : Things start to get a bit easier here with Regen at level 21. Regen should be cast on the tank primarily as it cures 5HP/tick for 25 ticks. With this costing less than two Cures, but curing for the amount of four, it allows you to rest to get that well needed MP while the party whittles down the mob's HP. Also, at level 25, you get the spell Raise which immediately makes you the best friend of everyone in the game. And again, much like with Cure II, Cure III should not become a normal part of your healing arsenal for quite a few levels. At level 28, you get Stoneskin which will nullify damage you take based on your Enhancing Magic skill level and your MND. It is important to keep Stoneskin up whenever you are fighting enemies that either don't like to stay tanked or if you are fighting enemies that use -aga spells. 40+ : One word, Haste. Keep this up on your tank at all times. The jobs that benefit the most (respectively) from Haste are Ninjas (lowers recast time on Utsusemi); Dark Knights, Dragoons, and Warriors as they use very high delay weapons; and Monks. What I like to do is pick three people in the party to Haste and be sure to keep it up at all times on these three people. One thing I do to keep track of when I need to re-Haste people is: I keep three timers on my desk that I can just hit a button and it resets the timers to 3 minutes. When the first haste I cast is at 2:34 sec remaining, I cast Haste on the next person, that way there is always a 30 second gap between Hastes. This allows you room for error if you have to use an emergency cure in the middle of re-Hasteing people. Also, Regen II/Regen III should be kept up on tank and offtank all the time so you can take time to rest up MP during and in between battles. : Update - With the addition of Cura.. this is the PERFECT spell to break your party out of a sleep effect. Very low MP usage, decent HP restored, and it breaks sleep! What more could you want! Endgame : I'm fairly new to endgame content, but from I've experienced (Dynamis, Abyssea, and some NMs), White Mage is very straightforward. You mainly focus on your party, giving them Haste, Regen, and healing being your top priority (as well as the random status-na spell). Always ask the leader, if you are not sure, what barspells to keep up. Some groups might want Barfira and Barparalyzra up all the time, or some may want a different element/status bar-spell combination. :Also, along with watching your party, a good White Mage will always keep an eye out for other parties in the alliance as well. I cannot stress enough how much it helps to utilize the Alliance hotkey targeting system. Use F1-F6 to target your party, CTRL+F1-F6 to target members of another party, and ALT+F1-F6 to target members of the second party. I find that having Cure III and Cure V handy at all times are a MUST. If you are the main healer in the main tank/DD group, keep Divine Seal + Curaga II handy as well. It might seem like a big MP sink, but if you need to hit a Cure III or Cure IV on all members of that party, it saves you well needed time and MP. :In certain endgame situations, I do warn you that things might get boring at times. You will more than likely find yourself resting a LOT and being always near full MP (especially if there is a RDM and BRD present). In these cases, help the tank out by using Flash, using Afflatus Solace+Cure V+Holy to help with damage, or even ask the alliance leader if it is OK if you melee a bit. If you have any suggestions or advice on endgame content, please post in the discussion section and I will add (and give due credit) to content I see fit. Subjob Selection ;Black Mage :This should be your subjob until at least level 50. The added Enfeebling Magic you get from this job are invaluable! Slow, Poison, and Tractor are always a huge plus to any party that does not have a Red Mage or a Black Mage. Also, having a mage subjob will give you a nice boost to your MP pool. :Also, the ability to use Tractor at level 50, and Escape at level 60 is an added bonus to any group wanting to get a good Raise or get out of the dungeons faster. (Thanks to Elrohir of Diabolos) ;Red Mage :Not bad for soloing 1-10 since you get a slight boost to your MP as well as an added boost to your attack and damage. Past that, Red Mage subjob dies off as you can gain much more beneficial spells as /BLM. ;Summoner :Used from level 50-75, this will give you an Auto Refresh that will give you 1MP/tick. Seems like a small amount, but it adds up quickly! Figure that is 20mp a minute, and for many XP party fights that last 2-3 minutes, that is 40-60 more MP per fight! That would allow you to get that extra cure off before all hell breaks loose. Also, a Summoner sub gives you the biggest boost to MP out of any other subjob. ;Scholar :Beginning at level 20, White Mages can begin to see benefits from Scholar as a subjob. Light Arts provides a 10% reduction in MP cost, casting time, and recast time for all White Magic. This can be kept active at all times. In addition to this, the Stratagem Penury provides a 50% MP cost reduction for the next white magic spell cast. At higher levels, the Stratagem Celerity becomes available, and the Job Ability Sublimation is an extremely useful tool for replenishing one’s MP. :Stratagems follow different usage rules than conventional Job Abilities; please see Scholar for more information on Stratagem use. :(Thank you to Elrohir of Diabolos for providing the /SCH guide!) :Update: /SCH is arguably the best subjob for White Mage - ESPECIALLY once you hit 80. If you do not have this leveled, I highly suggest you spend the time to get it to 40+. ;Bard :Some might argue that this adds to your role as a support job, but with no boost to MP, the ability to cast only one song, and no instrument usage... the pros of this subjob are dwarfed compared to the cons. ;Thief :Used only in Notorious Monster camping purposes for Treasure Hunter. ;Ranger or Beastmaster :Again, only in Notorious Monster camping situations for Widescan. If you have Ranger, I would suggest subbing this instead of Beastmaster, as it has about 10x the range on Widescan. ;Ninja :Dual Wield hammers helps for skilling up Club skill and soloing the tougher NMs. ;Any other melee class: :Put a sign on your back that says "kick me," you will be better off. Spells - To Buy or Not to Buy This section is for the poor or cheap WHM High Priority Spells * Haste * All Levels of Cure * All Levels of Regen * Erase * Haste * Cura * All -na spells except those listed below. * All levels of Protectra and Shellra * Repose * Haste * All levels of Raise and Reraise * All Bar-element spells * Invisible * Haste * Esuna * Sneak -- If you are caught in a party without Invisible and Sneak, you will be made fun of and possibly kicked. * Flash -- Great for soloing the tougher guys so you can get a Stoneskin or Blink off. Also, Ninja tanks would love you if you could flash for them so they can cast Utsusemi every once in a while. * Oh, and did I mention Haste? Low Priority Spells * Deodorize -- Perhaps the most useless spell I have ever seen. * Bar-status spells (unless you keep your Enhancing Magic skill capped at all times) * Viruna -- Not useful before level 60ish, but after that, parties will facepalm you if you don't have this. * Stona -- Most XP parties will not fight enemies that can petrify you, though Lizards are notorious for this. * Protect II, Protect III, Shell II, Shell III -- Why use these when the -ra version does the same thing, and to the whole party. I can't say for other servers, but these each go for 20-40k on the AH. * Dia II * Banishga and Diaga -- Skilling Up Your Magic Healing Magic Skill Rank: A+ : Best way to level your Healing Magic is to powerlevel someone. Basically, your Healing Magic will only have the chance of skilling up if your target is not at Max HP. If you can afford to just spam Cure on a person, not a higher level one, to keep them alive... do it. This will give you more chances of getting a skillup, and thus, faster skillups. : However, your healing magic can skill up even when your HP is at full, however it has a lower chance of skilling up. This means that you can sit outside of a Mog House, and burn through an MP bar worth of cure. Lather, rinse, repeat. - Thank you to MogManX4444 for this information : I have heard from several people that a way to level Healing Magic was to find mobs that are non-aggro like Lesser Colibri and spam low level Cures on them, however I have found this to be fixed by Square-Enix, as I spent 4 hours casting various Cures on the birds to get not a single skillup. : Curing the undead is a very effective way to level your healing magic as well. Undead take damage from Cures, so this can be a good way to farm and skill up healing at the same time. Keep in mind that since it is dealing damage in the same manner as Divine Magic would, you have to fight the correctly leveled enemy for it to have a chance to skill up (Please read below in the Divine Magic section for details.) :(Thank you to Eclipstic for providing this information) Divine Magic Skill Rank: A- : Since this is rarely used by a WHM in XP parties, this skill is possibly the hardest to cap. There are three ways you can go about skilling up Divine Magic. * If you find yourself with the extra MP and your party is doing good, toss a Banish or Banish II. If your skill is pretty low, there is a good chance you will see a 0.5 skillup out of almost each cast! * Here is where you might need to do a slight bit of research. First, find out your current skill level, and then find out what level of WHM has that level as its cap (or close to it) by using the Combat Skills page. This level is the max level monster you can fight and get 0 skillup points (due to your skill level being higher than the monster's level). What I like to do is add 5-10 to whatever level you find your Divine Magic matches up to, and fight monsters in that level range. :Example: ::My current Divine Magic skill level is 129. Using the guide I linked to, that tells me that a level 42 WHM as Divine Magic skill level 129 as its cap. I will go and fight level 47-52 enemies in hopes of getting faster, easier, skillups. * I have recently been told that there are certain mobs in the game that will not aggro unless they take damage. I am researching which mobs fall under this condition, and will post here. With these mobs, you can cast Repose and Flash to raise Divine Magic. Enhancing Magic Skill Rank: C+ : This is the easiest to skillup by far! Just sit in town in front of a Mog House and cast your barspells over and over again. When you run out of MP, go into the Mog House and back out. Viola! Your MP is back at full and you can resume chewing your arm off from boredom! Enfeebling Magic Skill Rank: C : Same idea as the Divine Magic. Use Dia, Paralyze, and Silence on the mobs to work on capping Enfeebling Magic. If you sub /BLM, you will have a LOT more Enfeebling Magics at your disposal. : Same new find here as in the Divine Magic section. I will post with what enemies you can skill up on without any fear of aggro. Category:Guides Job Abilities Benediction : Have this on macro... somewhere... at all times. Benediction is your 2-hour ability and has the capability of either saving your entire party or wiping your entire party. This ability restores a massive amount of HP (as well as clearing almost all status ailments) from all party members within range. However, one thing to always keep in mind, is that by using this ability is prime situations (where several party members are in the red or orange), you will most likely pull aggro and hold it for the remainder of the battle. Always make sure that you have enough MP to survive the enemy's barrage of attacks (or at least be altruistic enough to sacrifice yourself for the survival of the party). The HP restoration effect of Benediction is possible to emulate through the use of another job ability and a high level Curaga spell. Divine Seal : Again, this is another ability to always have on macro. This will double the potency of your next healing spell. Ideal times to use Divine Seal is either when a single cure absolutely won't allow the target to survive, or when the entire party needs a massive cure. Ideally, Divine Seal is saved for when the entire party needs to be healed (when everyone is orange/yellow in HP). A Divine Seal+Curaga IV can cure as much, if not more, than Benediction. That being said, it will generate a LOT of enmity. I like to try to save a Divine Seal+Curaga II combination for when enemy is below 20% and I need to rest a bit, but when I have several party members that need 2-3 Cure IIIs. This allows me to cure all party members, and then rest for a few ticks between pulls. Timing is CRITICAL on this because, as stated before, it generates a lot of enmity. Afflatus Solace : This ability is an absolute essential to any White Mage who parties. This ability will last on you for two hours, and gives you a good edge over other jobs that have the capability to heal. By having this ability active while partying, it gives all of your Cure spells an added Stoneskin effect that is equal to 25% of what your Cure spell WOULD cure for. (See article for Afflatus Solace for more information.) Also, this ability adds more Magic Defense Bonus to your Bar-Element spells, as well as increases the potency of Holy. Afflatus Misery : This is for the soloing White Mage... or the White Mage that just likes to take a beating. However, this can be broken down into two categories that benefit both soloing and party use. : Soloing/Damage Taking: The more damage you sustain, the more damage all levels of banish will do, as well as increasing the amount healed by Cura. : Partying: No matter if you sustain damage or not, this ability will increase the amount of status ailments removed by Esuna by 1 (increasing it to 2 at a time). Also, when paired with Auspice, it grants a potential accuracy bonus to the party. (Again, see the article for Afflatus Misery for more information. Still To Come The Proper White Mage Diet Merits Gear on a Budget